Even if there aren’t any opportunities for track days or autocrossing in your local area, or you just don’t feel comfortable putting your new MINI through that kind of ordeal, touring can be a great way to enjoy time with friends, see the scenery and sights in your region, and have some fun with your MINI.

Competitive autocrossing is a great alternative or supplement to track days. In autocross events, yours is the only car on the course while you’re running, so you don’t need to worry about anyone else getting in your way, or worse. Speeds are typically slower than on the track, so if something should go wrong, you are more likely to be able to deal with it than you might on the track

If you are thinking seriously about extensive touring, perhaps on less-than-smooth backroads, or you’re going to be doing much track time, sooner or later you will probably find yourself hitting a bump in a road, or taking an unintended off-track excursion

Track Day Driving Techniques- With some practice on the track, or on the autocross course, or preferably both, and some focused attention to your driving techniques while on the road, you should be getting a feeling for driving a high-performance automobile well.

Making Your MINI More Responsive In an earlier section of this book, we suggested that you could enhance the performance of your MINI by making a few changes to the engine, upgrading the air intake, supercharger, ECU, and exhaust. We think that any MINI on the street can benefit from the added hor...

Serious MINIs for Touring, Track and Autocross If you’re working your way through this book one step at a time, by now you have gotten a few weeks or months experience with your MINI. We also hope you have taken the opportunity to participate in a basic one-day driving school where you got more ...

Once again we’re back to trade-offs. For the average driver, with average passengers, the ability of the car to absorb bumps without rattling the dentures of gran’pa in the back seat is at least as important as how fast the car will get around corners.